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Monday, November 7, 2016

It ain't getting warmer



By early November those of us in the North Country have got to come to terms with the idea of winter. Nothing like turning the clocks back, plunging us into eternal night, to bring that home. Sure, you gain an hour in the early morning, but I'm a night owl. Dawn is a wonderful way to end the evening, not start the day.

With that in mind we finally got around to pulling the raft out of the lake. Last year my son-in-law and a friend did it as I'd been down to Florida since September. This year there were three of us and overall it went well. By well I mean we got the raft on dry land and no one fell in the lake. When the occasional snowflake blows by you really don't want to go for a swim.

While we were doing that little job my lovely wife was putting the lawn and garden to bed. She discovered that there is some fall plant, we aren't sure which one, that triggers allergies. After her little project she had to take some allergy pills and have a little rest until they kicked in. Eventually we will discover which plant, or plants, cause this seasonal problem and eliminate it.

For a brief while the temperature got above freezing. That's when I took the opportunity to give the motorcycle a quick scrub down with detergent and a brush. Once the worse of the gunk was cleaned off I pulled the fuel tank and the battery. The battery is long gone, of course, but the store wants the old one in trade. The fuel lines were cut to hasten the removal of the gas tank. Those lines all need replacement anyway. The tank is in surprisingly good shape -very little rust at all.

Sometime this week were should have a few days above freezing so I'd like to get the bike started. If it runs, I can drive it into the basement. Then I'll have all winter to pretty it up. A few of my friends have been inspired to fix up their motorcycles so we can all go riding in the spring. That's something to think about during the dark days of winter.

-Sixbears

8 comments:

  1. There isn't a single lead smelter left in the U.S. to my understanding. Getting your old battery is just part of making it harder for the common man to get lead for reloading. Of course, the dealer probably doesn't realize that.

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    1. Something like 98% of lead get recycled, but you are right, it's not done in the US anymore.

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  2. My first job as a teenager was working for a pier builder in Freeport. We built piers docks and floats and installed them. PT wood and foam, all heavy brutal work. In fall we were tasked with hauling the floats out and then in the spring putting them back in. Our gear for this work consisted come-alongs, winches and staging planks for skids-ways. But the most crucial ingredient was a big five gallon bucket of Crisco to grease the ways. It took 80% of the trouble out of the task and made it a joy to slide multi ton floats around like there was no gravity at all.

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  3. Still hot down here. Lows in the high forties at night, and up into the 80's during the day. Never seen a fall like this here before.

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    1. We got a little sun, but the nights are still below freezing. That's pretty normal for here. Long range weather forecasts, for what they are worth, seem to indicate a fairly normal winter for New England.

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  4. My childhood friend and I mixed a wrecked 900 Kawasaki engine with a go cart. Took us a winter of trial and error some of witch was caused by the beer we consumed while working on it. He lived at the end of a long dirt road and that thing was flying by the time you hit top gear. Don't know just how fast because we used a much lower ratio sprocket set than the street setup. The cart frame did have roll cage and H harness plus we added webbing to keep arms inside the cage. We never rolled it but the dude we sold it to tested it out running it off a 12 foot drop. He walked off but that ended the beast. Loved that engine, very strong and easy to hot rod. Have fun with the project and be safe!

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    1. That sounds awesome! And scary as heck. Lucky no one got killed.

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